


Omega Acceptance

by nealinor



Series: ABO Bingo Round 1 [25]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, F/F, First Meetings, Fluff, Omega Charlie, Omega Dean, Omega Jo Harvelle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-30
Updated: 2017-11-30
Packaged: 2019-02-08 14:42:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12866685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nealinor/pseuds/nealinor
Summary: Dean's almost sister Jo hates being an omega and it's really bringing her down. So he recruits his best buddy, Charlie, to befriend Jo to show her that being an omega can be awesome too.





	Omega Acceptance

**Author's Note:**

> Square Filled: Jo/Charlie
> 
> This is unrepentant fluff. You've been warned.

“What is this favor, Dean?” Charlie asked her best friend over the headset as she redirected her character to lead the way in the dungeon they were raiding together. It was just the two of them in the voice chat since they’d joined a pick up group for this particular raid, that way, they could talk shit about the people in their group they didn’t know. For now, things were going well so both were chit chatting about other things.

“So, I’ve got this friend…” Dean began.

“Are you trying to set me up with someone?” Charlie shot back suspiciously.

“No!” Dean said quickly, though he didn’t sound defensive so that was a plus. “This has nothing to do with romantic relationships, I promise.”

“Go on.” Charlie said with her eyes still on her screen.

“As I was saying, I have this friend who is having a rough time right now.” Dean said. “She’s an omega and she’s really never been well with being an omega, you know? She’s kinda the opposite of you.”

Charlie was, after all, pretty damn thrilled to be an omega. She loved it. She even loved heats and put up with the bad mouthing from the rest of society because she just loved being an omega. “What do you want me to do?”

“Maybe just meet her and try to help her see that it’s not all shit?” Dean said with a sigh. “I’ve tried, you know, but she won’t listen to me because I have a dick. Apparently omega with a dick trumps omega with a vagina in her world.” Dean’s sarcasm was clear in his voice. “Because apparently that means I don’t have alphas suggest I want to bend over and take it all the time.”

Charlie snorted because she’d been there the last time that happened to Dean. “So you want me to befriend her and try to change her world view?” She shook her head. “I don’t know if I can.”

“Nah, I don’t expect you to change her… I was just hoping having another omega friend would be helpful to her. She hangs out with too many betas and alphas.”

“Okay, fair enough.” Charlie figured that all told, at least she’d make a new friend. “When do I meet this friend?”

“How about you come out drinking with me Friday? I’ll introduce her then.” Dean suggested.

“Sounds like a plan.” Charlie agreed. At that point, the raid started to go south and the conversation was promptly lost in a flurry of complaints about noobs.

***

When Friday night rolled around, Charlie was meeting Dean in a bar called The Roadhouse. She walked into a place that had something of a Wild West saloon feel but was clean and bright. She gazed around the room and spied Dean in the corner booth and bounded her way over to her friend. She’d dressed casually that evening in a pair of jeans and a shirt that was emblazoned with the TriForce with her long red hair loose around her shoulders. When she came to the table, Dean was already sitting with someone else. She assumed that was Dean’s friend. She was thin with a pretty face and blonde hair. Her dark eyes glinted with something akin to determination, though at the moment, she was laughing at something that Dean was telling her. Charlie noticed that her smile transformed her from pretty to gorgeous.

_Woah there._ Charlie told herself. She wasn’t here to flirt with Dean’s friends. She was supposed to be a shining example of happy omeganess. With that in mind, she finished her walk and slid into the booth across from Dean. “Greetings, Bitches!”

“Hey Charlie!” Dean said with a grin before he turned to the blonde. “Jo, this is my friend, Charlie. Charlie, this is Jo. She and I were basically raised as siblings.”

“Nice to meet you!” Charlie gave her brightest smile and pushed her hand out at Jo. “Any friend of Dean’s.”

Jo took her hand and gave it a shake. “Are you sure about that? He’s kind of an idiot.”

“Hey now!” Dean interjected.

“But he’s our idiot.” Charlie shot back, which made Jo snicker.

“That’s it. I’m going to get more beer.” With that, Dean slid out of the booth.

“So what do you do, Jo?” Charlie asked as she tucked herself into her seat.

“I’m just moving back home. I’d been living in Kansas City.” Jo shrugged. “I’m staying with my Mom and working here until I get things figured out, I guess.”

“Your Mom?” Charlie asked, because Dean hadn’t told her that much about his friend.

“Yeah, Ellen. She owns the Roadhouse.”

“Oh cool! I didn’t know. I’ve never been here before.” Charlie admitted.

“Well, you are in for a treat. My mom makes the best burgers.”

“Even veggie burgers, Red.” Dean said as he pushed a bottle of beer in front of each of them.

“Nice!” They settled in to talk over burgers and beers for the evening. Charlie discovered that Jo had a sarcastic streak a mile wide and had determination in spades. She was strong willed and hot tempered and when she and Dean traded insults, her eye fired with challenge and laughter. Jo smelled like fresh ginger snaps and the scent tickled her nose. She also discovered that Jo avoided talking about designation at all and never mentioned it once. Charlie filed it away and didn’t push the issue. After they finished eating, they adjourned to Dean’s house to watch a movie and ended up talking long into the night.

***

Over the next few weeks, Charlie spent extra time trying to get to know Jo. She told herself that this was because Dean had asked her to befriend her but in all honesty, she liked Jo. They didn’t have a lot in common; where Charlie liked gaming and Star Trek movies, Jo liked sports and action films where things blew up. Charlie was a vegetarian and Jo loved rare steaks. Charlie was chill and Jo was easy to rile. Yet, for as much as they were different, Charlie found that she just plain liked Jo. She started popping by the Roadhouse every now and again on her way home from work. She didn’t usually drink much beer, but it gave her an excuse to see Jo again so she took it.

It didn’t take long for Ellen to recognize her on sight and to have a drink waiting for her when she pulled into the parking lot. There was something really nice about that. Sometimes they hung out with Dean, but the longer they knew each other, the more that Jo would hang out with just Charlie. (Besides, Dean had this new guy he was seeing; Cas-something, and he was devoting a lot of time to him.) Tonight was one of those nights. Charlie walked into The Roadhouse to find a root beer waiting on the bar for her at her customary stool. She glanced around the bar to see that Jo was waiting tables and was out in the dining room. Charlie was tempted to go grab a table to take some of her attention, however, she decided against it. Better if Jo came over to talk to her on her own. She nodded at Ellen and picked up the root beer and started to sip at it.

“The usual?” Ellen asked her from down the bar.

“Yes, please.” Charlie said as she pulled out her tablet and settled in to wait for Jo to have time for her. She’d been there for about ten minutes, playing Tsum Tsum on her tablet when she heard the clatter of dishes and a startled yelp behind her. She whirled around on her stool to see Jo clasping her tray while she glared at a big alpha who stared, nonplussed, at the petite omega.

“Keep your hands to yourself!” Jo ground out.

The alpha, for his part, merely snorted. “Come on now, a pretty thing like you? You are just waiting for the right knot.”

Jo’s turned very, very red and her dark eyes could have murdered a lesser person. “Well, newsflash, this omega isn’t waiting for any alpha’s knot. Particularly not yours.”

“Let me show you what you are missing.” The alpha reached out towards Jo.

Jo swung her tray and battered the alpha’s hand a way with a bone jarring whomp and the alpha hissed in pain. “You little bitch!”

“That’s enough!” Ellen shouted from the bar, coming out from behind it in defense of her daughter, uncaring that she too was an omega. “We don’t serve your kind in here. Get out.”

“Oh?” The alpha sneered. “Who’s going to make me? You?”

“No, I am, you Idjit.” Bobby snarled as he passed through the doors from the kitchen and hauled the errant alpha up by his shirt. The old man might have been smaller but it was clear that he wasn’t scared of the misbehaving alpha. In fact, the older alpha dragged the man out of the bar and hurled him into the parking lot. The man’s friends scrambled to get out of the bar behind him.

Silence stretched across the bar that was slowly replaced by whispers as the rest of the patrons went back to their conversation.

“You okay, Jo?” Ellen asked.

“Fine.” Jo ground out tersely before she began to clear the newly abandoned table.

Ellen stepped up to the table. “I’ll do this. Why don’t you go sit with Charlie at the bar for a minute?”

Jo looked as if she was going to argue, but then she shot a look to Charlie and nodded. “Thanks.”

For her part, Charlie had watched the whole thing in stunned silence. As Jo approached her, she was watching the blonde carefully for signs of how she felt. Jo was easy to read. Her cheeks were still red and her eyes were flashing still. She had a death grip on the tray she carried and was white knuckled. She flopped onto the stool next to Charlie.

“I hate alphas like that.” Jo griped as she glanced at Charlie.

“Did he hurt you?” Charlie asked quietly, making sure her friend was okay before she tried to lighten the mood.

“No, he grabbed at me and missed.” Jo said, her lips curling into a smirk. “I’m faster than some ham handed alpha knothead.”

“I can tell.” Charlie replied with a chuckle before she pushed her root beer over to Jo.

The blonde omega grabbed it with a smile and took a sip. “Yeah, well, you have to be used to it in this business. Every damn alpha seems to think that you are looking for a knot… especially if you are an omega.”

“Isn’t that the truth?” Charlie knew it wasn’t exactly true; after all, Jo’s step father was an alpha and a damned good one.

“Yeah.” Jo looked at the bar before drinking more of Charlie’s root beer. She opened her mouth to say something but stopped and shook her head.

Charlie gently laid her hand over Jo’s. “Tell me? It’ll stay between us.”

Jo looked at her for a long moment before nodding. “It’s just… unfair. I was supposed to be an alpha. I know I was. If I weren’t an omega, they wouldn’t treat me like that. They wouldn’t laugh when I told them off. They’d take me seriously.”

“Jo, that doesn’t mean it’s right.” Charlie said, shifting on her stool. She wished she could deny it was true but she couldn’t. Jo was right. They would always be belittled by alphas because that’s the way most knotheads were.

“Yeah, well, it sucks.” Jo said with a snort.

“It does… but you know, there are good things about being an omega.” Charlie pointed out.

“Like what?” Jo shot back, eyes flashing. “Being thought to be weak? Or the expectation that you need a knot? Oh! I know! Heats!”

Charlie shook her head with a smile and reached up to tug at Jo’s hair. “Other omegas, silly. There’s nothing like another omega. It’s good to be with them. To know they won’t belittle you, or ask you dumb questions or treat you like you are weak.” Her eyes lit playfully as she leaned forward. “And slick is awesome… in a lot of ways.” She winked then, because she’d never once pretended to be something other than she was. Jo knew that Charlie dated other omegas.

Jo blushed. “I… wouldn’t know about that.”

“You don’t know what you are missing.” Charlie snatched back her root beer and drank some more of it.

“I bet it’s nicer than knotting.” Jo mused.

“I wouldn’t know.” Charlie shrugged with an unrepentant smile. “I’ve never been knotted and I never will be.”

“Maybe that’s smart.” Jo admitted begrudgingly then looked as if she wanted to ask Charlie something else, but then someone called for her and she slipped over her stool to go back to work. She paused to squeeze Charlie’s shoulder before she went in a silent gesture of thanks.

***

After that day, Jo opened up to Charlie a little bit more. They texted more often and actually talked about some of the things that bothered her. For Jo, it seemed that she wanted to be strong and tough and those things did not fit the omega mold. She didn’t need a protector and wanted fiercely to care for herself. Charlie learned that the scent of ginger snaps made her mouth water. She had a hard time in hiding her attraction to Jo, which only seemed to grow the more she knew about the other omega. Jo gave no indications what she thought of Charlie beyond telling her one night that gum drops were her favorite candy as a child. (Charlie’s own fragrance was strongly reminiscent of gum drops so she took this as a good sign.)

What Charlie did notice was that there were times when Jo seemed to have something to say to her that she held back. It happened almost every time they were together; Jo would look thoughtful, she’d open her mouth but then would close it again and whatever it was would go unsaid. It was starting to drive Charlie a little bit crazy. _What could it be?_

_***_

Thursday nights were movie night at Charlie’s place. It was started on a whim a week or so after she met Jo; and at first Dean came too. They would debate movie choices until deciding on one and then would settle in to watch it together. Lately, Dean hadn’t been turning up as often because it seemed that things with his new boyfriend, Cas, were getting pretty serious. Dean dealt with a lot of shit, so Charlie didn’t begrudge him his happiness. She gave him shit, of course, this was what a best friend was for, but she didn’t begrudge him. Besides, it gave her time to spend with Jo all to herself. Charlie found that she looked forward to movie nights, even when they were watching the Terminator movies at Jo’s behest. It wasn’t Charlie’s cup of tea, but she had made Jo watch the extended version of Lord of the Rings last week, so she had it coming.

From the moment Jo entered, Charlie knew something was up. There was something determined in the other omega’s expression and it concerned Charlie. “Hey… is it everything okay, Jo?”

“Yeah, Charlie. Everything’s fine.” Jo said with a smile, though the smile was forced.

“You sure?” Charlie pressed gently, because she knew that pushing Jo too much was a recipe for explosion.

“Yup.” Jo answered lightly and pushed a six pack of beer into Charlie’s hands. “I brought beer and popcorn.”

Charlie allowed herself to be redirected though it didn’t quell her worries. “I ordered pizza. Pepperoni for you and cheese for me.”

“Perfect.” Jo flopped onto the couch with a sigh and kicked off her shoes. She curled up into the corner of the couch while Charlie put the beer in the fridge.

The evening went forward as it always did. They chatted while waiting for the pizza (Charlie learned that the bar had been slow this week and Jo hadn’t had any trouble) and then they started the movie and spent a couple of hours watching the Terminator blow things up. Charlie got the sense that whatever was on Jo’s mind was still bothering her because once the movie was over, Jo seemed unsettled in her corner of the couch.

Charlie shot her a look but kept her silence as she got up. “Want to watch the next? I can make popcorn.”

“Sure.” Jo said, then hopped up from the couch and collected their empty beer bottles. “I’ll help.”

Charlie went into the kitchen with the pizza boxes and tossed them on the table before going to get her popcorn popper. She went to grab the popcorn when she became aware of Jo standing right behind her. When she tossed a look over her shoulder, the blonde was chewing nervously on her lip. Charlie put the popcorn container aside and turned to face the omega. “Okay, spill. Something’s up.”

Jo’s shoulders slumped and the blonde looked down at her hands. She wrung them together and didn’t meet Charlie’s eyes. “I just… it’s hard to say, Charlie.”

This wasn’t really like Jo at all. Jo wasn’t nervous or small and Charlie knew that. “Hey, what happened to the Jo I know that doesn’t give a shit and says what’s on her mind?”

Jo glanced up with a sparkle in her dark eyes though they flicked away from Charlie. “Well, you know, there are some things I do care about.”

“And this is one of them?”

“Yeah.” Jo agreed.

“You have to know that there’s nothing you can’t say to me by now. Even Dean just lets it rip… most of the time.” Charlie reminded the omega with a laugh.

“You are right…it’s just…” Jo trailed off, then looked at Charlie and huffed a frustrated sigh. “It’s hard because it’s not something I’ve done before.” Her shoulders squared. “Charlie, what do you think of me?”

Charlie frowned, not sure where this was going. “I like you Jo. You’ve become one of my closest friends in a short amount of time. You’re awesome.”

Jo bit her lip again but her expression firmed and she looked back to Charlie. “Could you like me for more than a friend?”

Shock thrummed through Charlie. Of all the things that she had imagined, this hadn’t been in the number. She searched Jo’s face for a sign of what this meant. Had the blonde figured out that Charlie wanted more and was going to break off her their friendship? She saw no hints of that. In the end, Charlie did what she always did: jumped in with both feet. “Yes, I could. Very easily.” Honesty was always best, right? Unfortunately, Charlie was catching Jo’s nerves. “Why do you ask?”

“Because I think I feel that way about you.” Jo said, her voice steady as her dark eyes drilled into Charlie’s, searching her. “I just… didn’t know how to go about changing things.”

“Is that what you’ve been meaning to tell me all this time?”

“You noticed?” Jo’s smile was chagrined.

“Well, there was always something you weren’t saying to me.” Charlie shrugged as she leaned back against the counter behind her.

“Yeah. That was it.” Jo said, then took a step towards Charlie, bringing her close enough that she could snatch up Charlie’s hand. “Can we try?”

“To be girlfriends?” Charlie grasped Jo’s hand in return and used it to pull the omega towards her. When she was close enough, she brushed her lips across the blonde’s cheek and breathed in the scent of ginger snaps. “Yes, I would like that. I can teach you all the ‘how to love another omega’ lessons.”

“Like how to like slick?” Jo asked, her eyes twinkling.

“Of course!” Charlie returned her grin, then headed out of the kitchen towards the couch. “But I’ve got to tell you, that’s like lesson five.”

“Oh.” Jo followed behind her, content to let herself be pulled until they reached the couch. “What’s lesson number one?”

Charlie nudged the omega down on the couch then plopped down next to her, still holding her hand. “Hand holding and couch cuddling.”

“Sounds perfect.” Jo scooted on the couch until they were cuddled side by side.

Charlie settled in and then picked up the remote before she remembered. “I forgot to make popcorn.”

“We can’t have that.” Jo pushed her from the couch. Clearly, liking omegas wasn’t going to change the nature of the beast.

Charlie hopped up, laughing all the way back to the kitchen. “I got it!” The rest of the night was spent cuddling through the movie and teasing each other lightly as they shared the popcorn and when the movie ended, well, Charlie started lesson two, which was kissing. It was a small kiss, innocent and sweet, but held all the promise of a bright future for them both.

 


End file.
